Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada-Research Policy and Practice最新文献

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the potential impacts of the introduction of a smoke-free generation (SFG) policy in Canada with a perpetual ban on cigarette sales to anyone born after 2009 instigated on 1 January 2025.

Methods: An existing Canadian model relating to smoking cessation was adapted and augmented to assess the impact of an SFG policy on quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), life expectancy, health care costs, smoking-related taxes, and Canadian tobacco industry gross domestic product (GDP). The cumulative impact of the policy for the entire Canadian population was assessed for time horizons up to 90 years with an annual discount rate of 1.5%.

Results: After 50 years, this SFG policy would lead to 476 814 more QALYs, $2.3 billion less in health care costs, $7.4 billion less in smoking-related taxes and a $3.1 billion reduction in tobacco industry GDP. The combined value of health benefits gained and health care costs averted would exceed the sum of tax revenues foregone and reduced GDP, if the value of a QALY was at least $17 147. Use of higher discount rates and inclusion of unrelated health care costs had little impact on the interpretation of the results.

Conclusion: The implementation of an SFG policy will bring substantive health benefits to the population in Canada. Although health care cost savings are lower than the combination of lost tax revenues and the decline in the GDP from the Canadian tobacco industry, the value of the health benefits realized outweigh the negative offsets.

An analysis of 1771 Canadian adults who smoke or used to smoke cigarettes was conducted using data from the 2022 International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey. Using weighted data, we estimated the prevalence of Canadian adults who tried to quit smoking between 2020 and 2022, and the use of a nicotine vaping product (NVP) and the flavours and devices used most often at their most recent quit attempt. Overall, 36.5% made a quit attempt; of those, 19.4% used an NVP. Those who were younger and quit smoking were more likely to have used an NVP. Prefilled cartridges or pods (36.3%) and fruit flavours (39.5%) were used most frequently.

Falls among older adults (aged 65 years and older) are a public health concern in Canada. Fall-related injuries can cause a reduction in quality of life among older adults, and death. They also entail substantial health care costs. It is essential to monitor fallrelated injuries and deaths among older adults to better understand temporal trends and characteristics and to evaluate fall prevention strategies. We used the most up-to-date data from the Canadian Vital Statistics-Death database, Discharge Abstract Database and National Ambulatory Care Reporting System to analyze the temporal trends of fallrelated mortality, hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits among older adults in Canada over more than a decade. Age and sex characteristics were also examined. In 2022, 7189 older adults died due to a fall in Canada (excluding Yukon). From 2010 to 2022, deaths due to falls generally increased in both number and rates. In fiscal year 2023/24, there were 81 599 fall-related hospitalizations in Canada (excluding Quebec) and 212 570 fall-related ED visits in Ontario and Alberta. From fiscal year 2010/11 to 2023/24, even though the overall trend of the rates of fall-related hospitalizations and ED visits did not increase, the numbers generally rose year by year except in 2020/21, the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. As for the age and sex characteristics, the rates for deaths, hospitalizations and ED visits rose with advancing age for both men and women. With the aging population, continuous monitoring of the trends is crucial for fall prevention.

Introduction: To date, surveillance of vaping among Canadians (using vaping products with or without nicotine) has largely been examined with respect to age and smoking status. However, a nationally representative examination of a broad set of characteristics is lacking. This study characterized Canadians aged 15 years and older who vape, stratified by smoking status.

Methods: Data from the 2020 Canadian Community Health Survey (unweighted analytical sample size: 28 413 respondents) were used to examine past-30-day vaping stratified by smoking status (current smoking, former smoking, and never/nonsmoking). A Sexand Gender-Based Analysis Plus approach was used to select individual-level characteristics for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to examine outcomes by each characteristic and multivariable logistic regression models were constructed to identify significant factors associated with each past-30-day vaping by smoking status category, using weighted data.

Results: In 2020, 2.0% (605 000) of Canadians aged 15 years and older reported vaping and current smoking (dual use), 1.2% (372 000) reported vaping and former smoking and 1.1% (352 000) reported vaping and never/nonsmoking. Within each past-30-day vaping by smoking status category, certain subgroups presented higher risks: youth and young adults, men, and those having a mood and/or anxiety disorder had higher odds of dual use. Vaping and former smoking was associated with self-identification as a man, having a mood and/or anxiety disorder and provincial region. Youth and young adults, men and those identifying as not a visible minority had higher odds of vaping and never/nonsmoking.

Conclusion: This analysis of Canadians who vape, stratified by smoking status, identifies high-prevalence subpopulations and informs us of the composition of vaping populations by select characteristics, deepening our understanding of Canadians who engage in vaping behaviours.

Introduction: As a foundation for prevention, evidence is required to establish the contemporary distribution of hunger in Canadian adolescents. We present findings from a nationally representative survey of young Canadians on how perceived hunger is distributed demographically, socially and contextually.

Methods: A probability-based sample of 15 656 young Canadians aged 11 to 15 years who completed the 2017/18 cycle of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study was used. Descriptive statistics and multivariable regression analyses were used to profile the study population and the distribution of hunger attributed to "not having enough food at home."

Results: Overall, one in six (16.6%) survey participants reported experiencing hunger. There was a strong and significant correlation between low socioeconomic status and hunger (p $lt; 0.001 for the low and middle socioeconomic groups, compared to the high socioeconomic status group). Notably, 12.5% of participants with high levels of affluence also reported such experiences of hunger; however, this was not a statistically significant finding. Hunger was less frequently reported in older participants and in higher grade levels, with some level of significance. Regression analyses indicated that, within the sample, some demographic characteristics correlated with experiences of hunger: lower levels of affluence, identifying as male or nonbinary gender, long-term immigrant status, and identifying as Black, Latin American or mixed ethnicity.

Conclusion: Clear disparities exist in the self-reported experience of hunger among young people in Canada.

Introduction: The overdose epidemic continues to be one of the largest public health crises in Canada. Various harm reduction supports have been implemented to curb this epidemic; however, they remain concentrated within urban settings. To address this limitation, overdose response hotlines and applications (ORHA) are novel, technologybased harm reduction services that may reduce drug-related mortality for people who use substances (PWUS) living in rural communities through virtual supervised consumption. These services enable more timely and remote activation of emergency responses, should an individual become unresponsive. We aimed to explore the experiences, perceptions and attitudes surrounding ORHA of individuals living in rural areas.

Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with 15 PWUS (7 [46.7%] male, 9 [60%] Indigenous) who lived in rural, remote or Indigenous communities. Interviews were conducted until data saturation was reached. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results: Six key themes emerged: (1) participants viewed ORHA as a pragmatic intervention for rural areas but noted potential limitations to its uptake and effectiveness; (2) rural geography may hinder EMS response times, reducing the efficacy of ORHA; (3) ORHA uptake may be limited due to significant stigma faced by PWUS in these communities; (4) lack of access to technology remains a barrier to ORHA access; (5) harm reduction awareness is often limited in rural communities; and (6) there are unique social implications around substance use and harm reduction for rural Indigenous PWUS.

Conclusion: While participants believed that ORHA may be a feasible harm reduction strategy for rural PWUS, limitations, including response times, technological access and substance use stigma, remain.

Introduction: This study evaluated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on temporal trends in mental health and addiction-related inpatient hospitalization rates among youth (aged 10-17 years) in Canadian provinces and territories (excluding Quebec) from 1 April 2018 to 5 March 2022.

Methods: We conducted an interrupted time series analysis across three periods: T0 (pre-pandemic: 1 April 2018 to 15 March 2020); T1 (early pandemic: 15 March 2020 to 5 July 2020); and T2 (later pandemic: 6 July 2020 to 5 March 2022).

Results: Pre-pandemic mental health and addiction-related hospitalization rates had significant regional variability, with weekly rates from 6.27 to 85.59 events per 100 000 persons in Manitoba and the territories combined, respectively. During T1, the national (excluding Quebec) weekly hospitalization rate decreased from a pre-pandemic level of 12.82 (95% CI: 12.14 to 13.50) to 5.11 (95% CI: 3.80 to 6.41) events per 100 000 persons. There was no statistically significant change in the mental health and addiction- related hospitalization rate across provinces and territories in T2 compared to T0. However, there was a significant increase in the rate of self-harm-related hospitalizations among females Canada-wide and in most provinces during this period.

Conclusion: Although several Canadian studies have reported increases in mental health and addiction-related outpatient and emergency department visits among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, this did not correspond to an increase in the inpatient hospital burden, with the notable exception of self-harm among young females.

Introduction: Psychological well-being (PWB) is an important component of positive mental health (PMH) and an asset for population health. This study examined correlates of PWB among community-dwelling adults (18+ years) in the 10 Canadian provinces.

Methods: Using data from the 2019 Canadian Community Health Survey Rapid Response on PMH, we conducted linear regression analyses with sociodemographic, mental health, physical health and substance use variables as predictors of PWB. PWB was measured using six questions from the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form, which asked about feelings of self-acceptance, personal growth, environmental mastery, autonomy, positive relations and purpose in life during the past month.

Results: In unadjusted and adjusted analyses, older age, being married or in a commonlaw relationship and having a BMI in the overweight category (25.00-29.99) were associated with higher PWB, while reporting a mood disorder, anxiety disorder, high perceived life stress, engaging in heavy episodic drinking and frequent cannabis use were associated with lower PWB. Sex, having children living at home, immigrant status, racialized group membership, educational attainment, household income tertile, having a BMI in the obese category (≥30.00), major chronic disease and smoking status were not significantly associated with PWB.

Conclusion: This research identifies sociodemographic, mental health, physical health and substance use factors associated with PWB among adults in Canada. These findings highlight groups and characteristics that could be the focus of future research to promote PMH.

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) surveillance in Quebec and the rest of Canada is carried out using health administrative databases, which in Quebec includes the physician claims database. The presence of billing claims without diagnoses can lead to the number of CVD cases being underestimated. The purpose of this study is to estimate the proportion of CVD diagnoses and CVD cases that may be missing from these databases.

Methods: The study was conducted using a prospective cohort of 8781 participants living in the Québec City area. Access to health administrative databases was granted for the entire 28-year follow-up period. First, we performed frequency analyses to estimate the proportion of missing CVD diagnoses. Then we used validated algorithms to identify CVD cases and estimate the proportion of CVD cases that were potentially not captured over the 28-year period.

Results: About one-fifth (22.1%) of the diagnoses in the physician claims database were missing. The proportion of missing CVD cases was estimated at 12.7% for 1991-2018, although this varied with the period covered (1991-1996: 15.5%; 1997-2013: 10.7%; and 2014-2018: 16.3%).

Conclusion: Approximatively 1 in 10 CVD cases are not identified due to a missing diagnosis. This underestimation of CVD cases is a potential limitation that should be considered when using Quebec health administrative databases to identify CVD cases for surveillance work and epidemiological studies.

Introduction: Many of the social and economic factors that shape conditions for population health and health equity (e.g. income, education and employment) lie outside of the health sector. Intersectoral action (ISA) is pivotal to building diverse partnerships that address these social determinants of health. Despite the significant role of ISA, there are few comprehensive reports from the health sector on how such partnerships are evaluated. The purpose of this scoping review is to provide an overview of examples of ISA partnership evaluations, including the identification of evaluation methods, tools and indicators.

Methods: A literature search of two academic databases, Embase and MEDLINE, identified seven relevant studies published between 2012 and 2022.

Results: Common evaluation approaches were network analysis, community- or system- level analysis, partnership evaluation and longitudinal process evaluation. Five of the studies assessed the strength and functionality of partnerships, with reach (e.g. distance between partners) used most frequently as an indicator.

Conclusion: Despite the complexity of evaluating ISA partnerships, such evaluations are crucial for assessing impacts on health outcomes and social determinants of health, goal achievement, accountability and sustainability. Different evaluation models are available to program planners and evaluators involved in ISA initiatives.